Breaking Point
by Omega Overlord
Summary: If you are shrewd, You have noticed the subtle clues I have been placing in all of the fics up until this point. In this, the issue come to a head, and Jake will never be the same. Will he follow down Sepulchure's dark path? Read and find out.
1. Broken

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Artix Entertainment portrayed within.

Serenity's Inn: Falconreach

Jake, Death Knight and hero of Lore, huddled at one of the tables over his mug of warm apple cider. He really needed this, this break from his home life. After he had allowed Flora to fly to Osprey Cove on Bruno, and she had suddenly, inexplicably returned with Captain Rhubarb leading her by the arm, along with a large crew of pirates to move Flora's things directly to the pirate home town, Teresa had assumed that he had set that up in addition to everyone else. She had been chewing him out hourly since then, and his fried nerves could not handle any more screaming.

He shuddered when he thought of what was waiting for him when he finally went back, "What did I do to deserve this?"

A voice accompanied the sound of a chair sliding back, "Deserve what?"

He glanced up and saw Artix von Krieger sliding into the seat across from him, another mug of cider in hand. Vayle was conspicuously absent from the usual recent picture of the two.

He smiled a wan smile, "My wife, that's what. Rips me a new one every night. What's your excuse?"

Artix shrugged and took a sip from his mug, "I don't really need one. Lady Celestia was holding a tea party and, well I have already had enough from her to last a lifetime."

He raised his mug in agreement, "I heard that, no more tea for me."

Artix laughed and clinked his mug against the other, "You're hiding from your wife? That doesn't sound like you."

He scowled into the contents of his mug, "Don't remind me. Teresa has been so irrational lately, and I can't figure out what I've been doing wrong. She thinks I'm spending more time on setting other people up with each other than I am spending on her, and I had absolutely nothing to do with Flora and Rhubarb!"

Artix gave him a surprised look, "What's this about Flora and Rhubarb?"

He sighed, "Bruno gave Flora a ride to Osprey Cove about a week ago. Then within three days she's back in Amityvale with Rhubarb leading her by the arm, with a crew of pirates that instantly start loading up all of Flora's things to move back to Osprey Cove. Apparently, in the day that Flora was there, she fell in love with Rhubarb. And I get punished for it."

Artix shook his head, "No, she's always had a thing for the pirate. You just never noticed."

His head shot up, "Huh? Really?" His mood improved significantly, "Well that gives me some ammunition for when Teresa starts screaming at me tonight. Maybe I'll finally be able to talk some sense into her."

Artix smirked, "Well, if you ever need another break, you can always drop by our place. Vayle still is under the impression that we owe you one."

He smiled, "And you don't? If it weren't for me taking the initiative you two would never tied the knot."

Artix flushed, "Oh fine, we still owe you. Happy?"

He almost laughed, "No, but you made me feel a bit better. Thanks for the opportunity to crack a joke at your expense."

Artix scowled, "Well, not that I'm happy about being the whipping boy, but you're welcome." A thought seemed to occur to Artix, "Jake, how did you meet Teresa? I don't think you've ever told me, of course I could be wrong."

He smiled, "No, I don't think I ever have, and I think it would do me a world of good to remember a time that things weren't so damn chaotic." He closed his eyes as he took a trip down memory lane, "Let's see, it was back during the pirate vs ninja war. I was fighting for the pirates, Teresa was fighting for the ninja's."

Artix interrupted, "Wait, you two fought each other?"

He nodded, "Yeah, for a while anyways. Then we faced each other and I trounced her pretty darn good. Took her captive and..." He chuckled, "Things just kind of cascaded after that."

A high-pitched, sing song voice chimed in, "You forgot how you knocked her off of a cliff and you dove in after her."

His eyes snapped open, "That voice..."

He turned around in his seat, long blond ponytail, bright pink and white armor, gold scaled blue eyed baby dragon curled around her shoulders.

A smile spread across his face, "Louise, it's been too long."

Artix couldn't help but smile as Jake stood up and Louise practically jumped on him with a hug. Eyes shut, laughter ringing as clear as a crystal bell.

Jake peeled Louise off of him, "Where have you been? I havn't seen anything of you for months!"

Louise picked her baby dragon up off of the floor, "I was in Dragonsgrasp. Bubbles here needed an older dragon to teach her some things."

Jake smirked, in apparent effort to not laugh, "Bubbles? You named your dragon Bubbles?"

Louise hugged the little dragon to her chest, "Yes I did! Isn't she adorable?"

Jake scratched the little dragon behind the ear, causing it to coo in pleasure, "She sure is, but, you do know I would have been happy to let Bruno do the same thing for you."

Louise blushed, "Oh, I wouldn't want to impose..."

Jake laughed, "Nonsense, we've been friends since we started adventuring. I would do almost anything just because you asked. Having Bruno teach Bubbles a few tricks would have been the least I could do."

He kept silent while Jake chatted with Louise for what felt like hours. The gloom that had seemed almost eternal over the Death Knight's face recently vanished entirely. But then, Louise did that to everyone she walked by. He shook his head, it was either her almost childish innocence and willingness to help just about anyone, or the smile that made you want to do the same. Whatever it was, she was a ray of sunshine on a dark day.

The door to the inn exploded inwards with a rush of flame, followed by a scream, "JAKE!"

He whirled around in his seat, Xan, the insane pyromancer, had burst through the door and was making a beeline through the other patrons, oblivious to how everyone was scrambling through their backpacks for an ice or water weapon.

Jake stood fast while smoothly pulling a weapon that looked like a giant snowflake on a stick out of his backpack, typically, the ice was black, "What do you want Xan? You had better have a good reason for busting in here."

Xan was incensed, more so that usual, "Where is your wife!"

Jake appeared baffled, "Teresa? I thought she was training with you?"

The fire around Xan's head burned brighter, "Oh, sure. She WAS training with me. Until she stole the pyronomicon from me and left!"

Jake shrugged, "So she took the book back." When Xan didn't reply, just burned brighter, Jake relented, "You did check my house right?"

The room started to get uncomfortably warm, "Would I be standing here if I hadn't been there already!" Xan's attitude did a complete 180 turn, like only Xan could do, "Oh yes, I found this nailed to the door, it's for you."

Xan pulled a letter out of his pocket, in flaming hands, and handed it to Jake, "Fireproof stationary. Don't know how it got there."

Jake gave the letter an incredulous stare, "How am I supposed to know that you didn't write this yourself?"

Xan responded instantly, "You've seen me write, that's not my handwriting."

Jake nodded slowly, "True."

The Death Knight then sat down and ran his finger along the seam of the letter, tearing it open. Jake took the letter out and his eyes slowly scanned the page. The gloom that had vanished when Louise showed up, returned, magnified by a factor of ten.

Jake started to laugh, but it wasn't a happy laugh, it was a laugh that came from a tortured soul mixed with a good deal of insanity.

Jake put his helm on and ignited it, "Hay Xan, you feel like burning down a village?"

Louise set a hand on Jake's shoulder, "Jake? What's going on?"

Jake stood, did not respond, and sprinted out of the door. He left the letter behind.

Xan was frozen in shock for moment just like the rest of them, when that moment passed however...

The pyromancer ran after the Death Knight, "Wait for me!"

Louise stretched her hand after Jake and shouted, "Jake! Where are you going?"

He looked down at the letter Jake had left behind, took it in his hands, and started to read it to himself, 'To whom it may concern. Jake, I have had enough. You are never home when I want you to be. No matter how much I ask you to be. It seems you love your job more than me. And setting other people up with each other for that matter. I'm leaving, consider this letter to be my statement of divorce. Don't bother coming after me, the clan will be waiting for you if you do. May we never meet again, Teresa'

He slumped back in his chair in shock. Teresa had left Jake, and now he was going to burn down the Shadow of the Wind Village out of revenge. He could only hope that afterwards Jake would be in a better state of mind, at least stable enough to not do something like this again.

Island of Sho Nuff: Outskirts of Shadow of the Wind Village

Xan tried to make sense of what was going on, not that he wasn't thrilled that he would be allowed to burn down a village while Jake just watched. The flip of attitude on said Death Knight's part was what had him confused. Jake was the hero of Lore, regardless of how much he loathed having to refer to Jake as such, he shouldn't be burning down villages and slaughtering ninjas. Yet here they were, advancing at a breakneck speed on a direct path to where a literal wall of shadowblade masters stood between them and the actual village.

Jake spoke, in a furious tone, "Hang back, you'll get to have your fun when we get past them."

He started to open his mouth to reply but Jake charged ahead before he could answer. Heading straight into the line of ninjas and hacking away. He watched for a moment, Jake was aiming to kill with every swing, not knock out like usual, and he was cutting every ninja in half with one swing each, the epitome of brutality. It was almost like, seeing Sepulchure back in action as a Death Knight. That was just downright scary. Even for him.

Jake's shout interrupted his thoughts, "XAN, hurry up, no time for daydreaming!"

He took a second to glance around the impromptu battlefield, there was nothing left but black, bloodstained bits of cloth. And one very angry Death Knight standing in the middle of it all.

Jake beckoned, "Well? Do you want to burn the place down or am I going to have to smash it down?"

Something in the tone of the Death Knight made it sound like a very bad idea to do otherwise, so he followed. Once Jake had led him to the gate of the village itself the Death Knight paused for a moment.

Jake muttered, "I seriously hope I never need do this again, then again, I'm not likely to get married again after this." The Death Knight turned to him, "Well Xan, go crazy. Don't stop till there is nothing but ash remaining."

He ignored all of his previous thoughts and started to laugh, the new Jake was fun, "Got it, they won't know what hit them."

Before he could do anything significant though, a huge fireball crashed down out of the sky and knocked him flat.

A voice he recognized spoke, "I thought I told you not to come here Jake."

Jake answered, "Really? I guess I was too furious to notice."

He picked himself up and stood still, watching former husband and wife have what would probably be their last argument.

Jake shook his head, "I can't believe you. I made it very clear when we tied the knot that I wouldn't be available to be around the house all the time. That is my job, I have to be everywhere."

Teresa scowled, "That may be so, but you could have spent more time than you did. I would be home alone for days before you would get back."

Jake clenched his free hand, "And didn't I go out of my way to make it up to you every time that happened?"

Teresa snarled, "There are only so many apologies that a woman can bear. You passed that limit a long time ago."

Jake flipped his helm up so that they both could see his face, which was twisted in a mix of fury and sorrow, "Yet you said nothing, just continued to gnaw my ear off, and is it safe to assume that you also started sleeping with Thyton?"

Teresa nodded, "He, unlike you, knows how to treat a woman."

A long moment of silence fell.

Jake broke it by flipping his helm back down, "Then I suppose that there is nothing left to say. Ready whatever weapon you feel like using."

Teresa smirked, "You're serious? If you forgot, I hold the pyronomicon now."

Jake's voice held absolutely no emotion, "And Xan is as powerful without it as you are with it. Enough talking, it hurts enough as it is."

Jake lunged, axe blade first, at his former wife. The latter of which raised a wall of flame in front of said lunging Death Knight. Jake sailed through the fire without pause, nor cry of pain, to slam his axe in the dirt about a foot in front of Teresa, which created an orb of darkness that pulsed outwards and enveloped the both of them. When it cleared, things were just as they had been. No visible change had taken place.

Teresa smirked again, "And what exactly was that supposed to accomplish?"

Jake raised his axe over his head, and a black bolt of lightning struck the center of the DOOM weapon.

The Death Knight spoke one word, "Coil."

Teresa's eyes widened as what seemed to be pure life energy poured straight out of her and into Jake. The traitorous fire mage then sank to her knees as the unrelenting drain continued, until Teresa finally passed out. Jake walked over to the unconscious body of his former wife, was he actually going to kill Teresa?

Jake knelt and took the pyronomicon off of Teresa's body, then held the book up, "Your choice Xan, the orb or the book?"

He answered without a thought, "The book."

Jake tossed him the pyronomicon without a thought, then pointed to the Shadow of the Wind village, "Now burn it down."

He started laughing like a demon, "Gladly!"

Jake turned away from the giddy pyromancer and stood atop the bluff overlooking the ocean. He really had done it, almost killed the woman that had been, up until six or seven hours ago, the love of his life. That left a hole where his heart should have been, a deep, hollow, echoing hole. Teresa had still left him even after he had tried everything that he could do short of abandoning Lore to its own devices. It seemed that he really couldn't have a life of his own and do his job. What if he had known that when he started out? Would he still have done what he had done? Gone on all of those epic journey's, saved all of those people, and taken down Sepulchure? He smiled a sad smile to himself, he still probably would have. Only because his moral standards would not allow him to do otherwise.

Xan tapped him on the shoulder, and he knew it was Xan because no one else would have survived the pyromancer's onslaught, "Hey, the entire place is ash. Got any other places that you want to burn?"

He shook his head, but did not turn around, "No, that will be all for today Xan." Before the pyromancer could leave however he added, "And Xan, should you ever need my help with freeing Jaania that does not involve sacrificing my life, you know where to find me."

He sat down on the cliff, not even bothering to check if Teresa was still alive or not. Frankly, at this point, he couldn't care either way, and that hole where his heart used to be, well, he supposed that he was going to have to learn to live with it.


	2. The Plan

Several months later: Serenity's inn:

Artix looked out over the small crowd of concerned individuals that had gathered at his request. They were all here to discuss the disturbing change that had come over Jake since Teresa's letter and the aftermath that followed. The Death Knight had become so insular, leaving his home only when called upon for an emergency. And on those rare instances that he did leave, Jake barely spoke to anyone anymore. Just a few polite words and questions on what needed to be done. It was a shocking shift from the jovial, usually cheerful man that had taken Sepulchure down.

He raised his voice over the din of small conversation, "Is that everyone?"

At the front door, Serenity nodded to him and closed the door, "Everyone that said they were coming, and quite a few that heard about it on the way in."

He started to speak, "Ok, I'm sure all of you know why we are here..."

From the back of the inn, sitting at a table with Flora, Captain Rhubarb interrupted, "You don't need to go over it again. Jake burned down the Shadow of the Wind village and killed practically all of the warriors of the clan, followed by his former wife."

The comment, put so bluntly, sent a shiver of dread through all of them. If Jake could snap to such a degree that he would kill someone that he had loved, then there was really nothing keeping the Death Knight from doing the same thing to the rest of them.

He tried to get the meeting back on course, "Ah, right, back to coming up with a plan to..."

A tale that Galanoth was telling held more attention, "Last time the Ursice Savages got out of line, Jake set their leader on fire right in front of the whole tribe. It did the job, but it was just so, brutal."

He tried again, "Ok..."

Elysia caught the attention instead, "And the last time he fought off Togzilla, it wasn't enough that it was beaten and retreating, he made Bruno slit Togzilla's throat."

Off to one side, sitting at a table by herself, Vilmor posed the question, "How did Bruno take that?"

One of the dragonlords scattered around the inn answered, "You have to ask? Bruno IS the dragon that was born to destroy Lore. He got a kick out of removing a major thorn in his side."

He made another attempt, "Hello..."

Vayle used a sliver of the darkness orb's power and spoke, "Excuse me, but get back on topic."

The room snapped to attention in half of a heartbeat.

Vayle gave him a nudge, "Go ahead, holy boy." She used her pet name for him, why did she do that in public?

Despite the use of his humiliating nickname, he mouthed at his wife, 'Thank you.'

He spoke to the crowd, "Ok, despite all of the recent events we are trying to come up with an idea to HELP him, right?"

There was a murmur of agreement from the assembled crowd.

He continued, "So, does anyone have an idea?"

It was so quiet that they heard the ghosts moving around upstairs.

He spoke, "Great, now what?"

In the middle of the room, Zhoom, with Lillith sitting in his lap, spoke, "What can we do? He never leaves his house unless he gets called, and even then he just does the job and leaves."

There was a pause, then Lillith added, "So, we get him to come out for some reason that isn't actually the reason and, then what?"

There was a loud crash from the front door, everyone immediately whipped their heads over to the open door, and nothing was there.

A very loud, and very pompous voice spoke, "I'll tell you what we'll do! I, Big Daddy, the master of love, shall fix this in no time!"

They all lowered their eyes about a foot to see the three foot high, red clothed, blond, huge hatted, self proclaimed love doctor, and operator of Hero Heart day, and they all started laughing at the utter absurdity of it.

Vayle choked out between laughs, "You really think you can just walk in and fix every problem just like that?"

Big Daddy stuck a fist in the air, "Love is the best medicine!"

He crossed his arms and shook his head, "Well, in this case love is also the cause. How exactly do you think you're going to overcome that?"

Big Daddy made an attempt at striking a heroic pose, "Simple, I will..."

The entire room finished the sentence, with a weary resigned tone, "...Set him up with someone else."

Big Daddy put his fists on his hips and flashed them all a huge grin, "Exactly!"

Aisha, who was sitting with Galanoth, asked the sucker punch question, "And who, pray tell, do you intend on setting him up with?"

Big Daddy stuck his nose in the air, "I have not decided yet. But, I will choose his perfect match from those I see before me!" Big Daddy looked around for a moment, and pointed right at Lillith, "You would be perfect!"

Zhoom narrowed his eyes and wrapped an arm around Lillith's waist protectively, "She's taken."

Big Daddy blinked a few times. "Ah, I meant you!" And pointed at Flora.

Captain Rhubarb didn't actually say anything, he just pulled out his pistol, pulled the hammer back, and set it down on the table, pointing directly at Big Daddy's big noggin. Big Daddy immediately started to swing his pointing finger towards Aisha but stopped when the ice dragon queen shot him a death glare.

He suppressed a laugh, "Ok, Big Daddy, will you admit that you can't pick one out?"

Big Daddy shouted with aplomb, "Very well, I shall be taking volunteers!"

None of the women in the inn so much as moved a muscle.

Big Daddy's mouth stopped moving and hung open for a moment, "Really? He's the hero of Lore and NONE of you are even remotely interested?"

Rika, a paladin, started to speak, "Well, I like Jake. It's hard not to, but, he's well..."

A different voice, which he didn't recognize, spoke, and it was a SCARY voice, "Well what? What's wrong with Jake?"

He looked for the source, and she was standing off to one side, with a golden baby dragon curled up in her arms. Louise? He didn't even think she GOT angry period. Let alone had an "I'm going to brutally murder you with a fork" voice.

Rika looked as shaken, or more so, than he felt, "Ah, well he IS a Death Knight. That means he's, well, cursed."

Louise kept speaking in the same tone, "Oh yeah? Well guess what, that doesn't matter. Jake is the single kindest, most selfless man I have ever met. Cursed or not, I feel safe around him, like I'm invincible. So if you think I'm just going to sit here while you bad mouth him then I'll just..." Louise trailed off as soon as she seemed to realize that the entire inn was completely fixated on her.

Big Daddy roared with enthusiasm, "And we have our volunteer!"

Louise's face turned blood red and she started to stammer, "I ah, well ah..." Louise started to sprint for the door, "I need some air."

He stared, speechless, after the dragonlord for a moment before leaning towards Vayle, "Could you...?"

Vayle nodded and wordlessly stood up, following Louise out of the inn.

He glanced back at where Big Daddy was doing a jig in the middle of the floor, singing an improvised song about love, a very BAD song about love.

Galanoth stood up in a rage, "SHUT UP!" And punted the miniature love doctor across the room.

Vayle followed Louise slowly up the hill towards the guardian tower on the hill above Falconreach. Having a very good idea of where the dragonlord was going already was a big help, but then again, the tower locked its doors at night so that left only two places where Louise could have been going. She glanced up and saw that her hunch was correct, Louise was sitting, legs dangling off the side, on the left ledge of the hill. It was a nice spot really, practically the only place you could go and be relatively alone in the entire town.

She approached slowly, "Louise?"

The young woman gave a slight start before turning around at the shoulders, "Vayle?"

She gestured at the ground, "There room for one more?"

Louise obliged by scooting over about a foot and a half.

She sat down and stayed quiet for a moment, trying to think about what she should say.

She decided to start with something simple, "So, how did you find this spot?"

Louise smiled off into the distance, "Jake showed it to me a little while after we arrived in Falconreach. He brought me up here just as the sun was setting, it was so beautiful. I, I think it was around then that I started to..." Louise trailed off.

She finished the thought, "...Love him?"

Louise nodded and a tear slipped down the side of her face, "I can't get him out of my head. There were so many chances for me to tell him how I felt but, every time just was never quite right enough. Then he met Teresa and I, well then there really wasn't much I could say."

She was almost in awe, "And you stayed in love with him all four years he was married to Teresa?"

Louise nodded again, "Yeah, there was always this small part of me that just wished Teresa would leave so that I could step in. But after she died I didn't want to seem like I was taking advantage of her death so, I still didn't say anything."

She commented, "Yet you are always there to stick up for him when he isn't there in person."

Louise turned away and started to shake, it took a moment in the dim light for her to realize that Louise was crying.

The dragonlord spoke in between sobs, "It's just, so hard to listen to people who don't see past his job and what he became to do it. They don't see him for a man anymore even though he is a household name and, and..." Louise essentially stopped talking and kept sobbing, leaning on her for support.

She held Louise like that for about five minutes as the drgonlord vented all the pent up frustration she'd been feeling for the past six years. All the while she kept speaking soft reassurance to Louise.

Louise got herself back under control, minus the occasional sniffle, "I, thank you Vayle. I needed that. You sort of reminded me of my mother just now."

She pouted with indignation, "Please, don't start comparing me to your mother just yet. I'm still quite young, thank you very much."

Her reaction was enough to elicit a small giggle from Louise, "Ok Vayle."

She changed the subject, "Come on Louise, let's go back to the inn and figure out just how we're going to save your love interest from his self imposed exile."

Artix sighed and spoke over the crowd, "Ok, so, can we do this? Do for Jake what he did for us?"

Zhoom chimed in, "I still don't think it will be that simple. Louise just walking up to Jake and confessing doesn't have quite enough of an, impact to me."

He replied, "You have a thought on this?"

Zhoom nodded thoughtfully, "We could, stage a kidnaping."

There was a murmur of agreement before Flora shot the idea down, "Not to rain on the parade, but just who is going to kidnap Louise? Xan and Jake are almost best friends now, Drakath is incompetant, and Sek-Duat is weak against darkness and would never agree to anything even if you could find him."

Zhoom retalitated, "What about Sepulchure? Jake certainly hates him enough."

He broke in on the conversation, "You are assuming that we could convince Sepulchure to do it in the first place."

Zhoom shrugged, "Why not? Sepulchure is nowhere near as powerful as he was before Jake took him down. We could press gang him into doing what we want if needed."

Vayle added, "We would need a lot of undead, I can do some of that but still..."

Lillith broke in, "I can do the rest. It would be nothing to make several thousand."

Galanoth added his input, "And while you are doing that Artix, Zhoom, and I can go and conscript Sepulchure."

In his head he started to hope against hope that this crazy idea would actually work, "So, can we do this? Do for Jake what he did for us?"

There was a unanimous roar of approval throughout the inn.

Sepulchure's castle: two days later

The doom knight roared, "You want me to do WHAT!"

Galanoth replied, "You heard me correctly. Last time I knew you had ears."

Sepulchure crossed his arms and glared at him, "And why should I do this when Jake might very well kill me this time around?"

He drew his dragonsbane blade and held it loosely at his side, "Because if you don't, then we will kill you right now. How's that for encouragement?"

Sepulchure snarled, "I thought you hero's were supposed to be above blackmail."

He snarled back, "It's not blackmail, it's a promise."

Sepulchure sneered, "Oh really? And Galanoth, about that cold bitch you seem so taken with. I have it on good authority that, OW!" An arrow was sticking out of Sepulchure's left arm.

Zhoom lowered his bow slightly to nock another arrow, "Sorry, my finger slipped."

Sepulchure glared at all of them, and if looks could kill, they would have been dead hours ago, "Fine, you win hero's, I will do as you ask."

He gave a satisfied nod and sheathed his blade, "Good choice doom knight, and make sure you don't let Jake know that this is a set up."

Sepulchure gave them all a parting snarl, "Oh I shall be far to busy simply trying to stay alive for that."


	3. Execution

Doomwood: Graveyard

Vayle wiped her brow as she drew closer to finishing the summoning of the several thousand undead that they would need to stand in Jake's way. Not that they would even slow him down, that wasn't the point. The point was to make Jake think that Sepulchure was actually the one responsible for all the undead, not her and Lillith. Speaking of whom, she glanced over at the lich who was doing the same thing she was, with a somewhat higher degree of difficulty. Despite being a necromancer, light just was not as conducive to summoning the undead as darkness was. And she was technically cheating because of the darkness orb bound to her, but there was nothing that she could do about that.

Lillith sank to her knees, exhausted, "Ok, three thousand skeletons. All done."

She walked over and set a hand on Lillith's shoulder, "Easy, don't stress yourself. Zhoom would fill me with arrows if he thought I had pushed you too hard."

A gleeful smile spread across Lillith's face, "I love it when he gets all protective like that."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm sure you do, but we're done here. So let's get the bones moving to Sepulchure's castle."

Lillith shook her head, "I still can't believe that we're just going to hand several thousand undead over to Sepulchure."

She smirked and lightly rapped Lillith over the head with her knuckles, "That would be because we aren't doing that. You and I will be the ones actually telling the undead what to do."

Lillith rubbed the spot she had hit, "Well, that makes more sense. I thought for a moment that we were actually going to trust Sepulchure."

She chuckled softly, "Oh, even a death threat only goes so far. I still wouldn't trust the doom knight as far as I could throw him."

They walked a short ways, well, Lillith floated, before a thought seemed to occur to the lich, "Vayle, what are we going to do with the skeletons if Jake doesn't destroy them all?"

She gave a small snort of disdain, "You are, of course, assuming that Jake will leave any of them in one piece."

Lillith nodded, "Of course assuming that, what happens after if there are any skeletons left?"

She gave the lich a querying look, "Why? Did you want to keep them?"

Lillith's face twisted up in disgust, "Ugh, no! I can't stand the sight of them. Or the sound they make while walking around, or the smell..."

She interrupted, "Wait, the undead have a smell to them?"

Lillith stopped floating and turned to look at her, "You've never noticed? They have this disgustingly musty, dank, dirty smell to them. Maybe you just spend too much time around the undead?"

She smirked, "I should hope not, what with me being married to Artix, the holy boy who is physically unable to stop himself from re-killing any undead he comes across."

Lillith giggled, "Holy boy? Is that your pet name for him?"

She smiled and nodded, "Jake came up with it, but yes. Do you have one for Zhoom?"

Lillith shifted awkwardly, which was hard to do considering that she was floating, "Well, not exactly."

She hesitated, "Do I even want to ask?"

Lillith shifted awkwardly again and her face turned red, "No, I really don't think you do."

Now she felt uncomfortable, "Ok, so no more discussing this topic."

Lillith's face remained red, "Yeah that sounds good."

Falconreach: Serenity's Inn

Artix tapped his axe against his boot in anxiety. Sepulchure would be here within moments, under escort of himself, Galanoth, and Zhoom of course, to bring Louise to the castle. A later addition to the plan by the men in the group was that they, himself, Galanoth, and Zhoom, would be "imprisoned" on the top floor within sight of Sepulchure and Louise at all times. Just to make sure that the doom knight didn't do anything to Louise that would piss Jake off even more.

Louise was standing behind him, "So, this is going to work, right?"

He lifted his axe onto his shoulder as Sepulchure came into view at the far end on town, "Provided that everything goes according to plan, then yes."

Louise sounded at least fifty times more anxious than he felt, "And if it doesn't?"

He paused for a moment to ponder the question, then turned to face Louise, "Best case scenario, nothing changes. And we can try again with something else, like you just walking up to him and confessing."

Louise's grip tightened on the baby dragon she was holding, "And the worst case scenario?"

He thought for a moment, though he did not want to, "Worst case scenario, Jake could just go into complete exile and just say, in effect, to hell with all of you. Then we would all be doomed."

Louise shook her head, "I"m sorry, I must be sounding extremely pessimistic right now."

He nodded, "I understand, a lot of this crazy plan is resting on you when Jake rescues you."

Louise smiled for a brief moment, then the smile faded, "It just sounds good to think about that part, I just can't get it out of my head that it's being staged."

He had to think about that statement for a moment, "Well, I don't know what to tell you about that. I'm sure Jake could if he weren't out of it, but, just do what feels right at the moment I guess."

Louise smiled weakly, "Wow, Jake was right. You never would have gotten with Vayle if Jake hadn't helped the both of you."

He almost gagged, "You to? When did Jake tell you about that?"

Louise smiled a sad smile, "Just before Xan busted in with the letter. He also told me about Galanoth and Aisha, and how he had a minor role in Zhoom and Lillith."

He facepalmed, "Was he bragging?"

Louise shook her head, "No, he seemed genuinely glad that he had managed to help other people find their own piece of happiness."

A loud cough broke into the conversation, "As touching as this discussion is, I would like to get this damnable duty over with as soon as possible. So if you would kindly hurry up?"

He glanced over his shoulder to where Sepulchure had spoken from, held at sword point by Galanoth.

He whistled, "Ash!" When the young knight had reached him, "Ok, you know what you have to do, right?"

Ash nodded, "Wait a day, then run like the wind to Amityvale and let Jake know that Sepulchure has kidnaped Louise to use as a sacrifice, and has also captured you, Zhoom, and Galanoth."

He flashed Ash a thumbs up, "Perfect. We're counting on you."

Amityvale: One day later

Ash stood in front of Jake's door, almost afraid to knock. There were no lights on inside, and there was a palpable smell of utter darkness that emanated from every board of the house. Just how deep had Jake sank himself into the darkness of despair? He shook his head and steeled himself, everyone was counting on him to do this, and he wasn't about to chicken out now.

He lifted his right hand and knocked three times, "Hello? Jake?"

There was no audible sound from inside.

He started to knock again, "Ja..."

In the middle of his word Jake opened the door, flaming helm already lit and holding the DOOM axe, "Yes Ash? Is there a problem?"

Jake almost seemed, eager for violence. Which was a disturbing notion.

He spoke what he had planned to say, "Ah, Sepulchure has kidnaped Louise and..."

As soon as he finished saying the word "Louise" Jake had tensed up and bowled over him while sprinting away, whistling his signature dragon's call for Bruno.

Sepulchure's Castle: summit

Artix looked out over the ledge and watched Bruno drop Jake at the bottom of the castle. The Death Knight then charged in, crashing through the skeletons while not even swinging his DOOM axe, just pure momentum.

Behind him, Sepulchure snarled, "Jake is here?"

He nodded and turned away from the edge, "Yes. Louise, assume the position."

Louise nodded and lay down on top of a crude stone altar that had been built especially for the occasion.

He pulled Sepulchure aside, "Remember, the three of us are going to be right over there on the wall. So don't even think about doing anything to Louise, else we will knock you right off of the ledge over there."

The doom knight grimaced, "I havn't forgotten. And she's disgustingly innocent anyway."

He set his axe just out of reach and snapped the false chains around his wrists and ankles, "So long as we understand each other."

Next to him, about three feet away, Galanoth sighed, "So now what?"

Zhoom, in a similar position, answered, "Now we wait, and hope that things work."

Castle Throne room: Ten minutes into raid

Drakath fidgeted nervously. Jake was going to be here any moment, a very pissed off Death Knight with a very deadly axe.

He tried to calm himself, "It's going to be fine, so long as I lose quickly and tell Jake where to find the girl I probably won't die."

His calming attempt was shattered by a voice that came from behind him, "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that. It would however, be a very good idea to tell me where Louise is. Then I will decide whether or not I should kill you or not."

he screamed and whirled around, sword pointing directly at the slit between Jake's flaming helmet and his chest plate.

Jake continued, "But at least you seem to have finally learned that you will never beat me. So, what's it going to be? Tell me where Louise is and I might just let you live."

He shivered out of fear, but he couldn't give in that easily, things might...

Jake slightly lifted his axe.

He shrieked and dropped his sword, "She's on the top floor!"

Jake lifted his helmet to allow him to see an evil smirk plastered across the Death Knight's face, "Good boy, lucky for you I have more important things to do than waste my time killing you. So you live for now."

Jake dropped the flat edge of his axe blade upon his head, and he passed out.

Castle: Summit: twenty minutes into raid

Zhoom heard the crashing of metal on bone and assumed that Jake must be getting close to the summit.

He voiced his thought, "Sepulchure, you might want to get ready."

The doom knight did not respond.

He shouted, "Sepulchure!"

The doom knight reacted with a distracted, "Huh?"

He continued, "Jake is almost here, you should..."

He was cut off as the Death Knight in question crashed through the door to the lower floors with a pile of shattered bones flying through after him as he skidded to a halt.

Jake glanced around for a moment, "Ah, Zhoom, good." Jake tossed a knife and severed one of the fake chains holding him to the wall, "Do a man a favor and help Louise would you?" Jake turned to Sepulchure and leveled his DOOM axe at the doom knight, "I have to deal with a certain pest that I should have dealt with a long time ago."

Sepulchure snorted and drew a long, dark looking blade, "The only pest that should have been dealt with is you, Death Knight."

Jake rushed in and the heavy blade of his DOOM axe crashed against Sepulchure's blade before quickly rebounding and coming in from the other side, "Either way, you picked the wrong woman to kidnap. A mistake which you will pay dearly for."

Sepulchure deflected both swings and shot two quick stabs in Jake's direction, one which glanced off of the Death Knight's shoulder plaudron, "We shall see."

Jake laughed and threw a powerful, two handed downward swing that sent Sepulchure staggering, "I think you said those words before, right before I kicked your ass when you were at full power. You are now just a shadow of that and you still think you can win? You villains just never learn."

Sepulchure sent another stab Jake's way, but this time Jake caught the long sword in a notch on his axe, before twisting the blade off to the side and kicking it out of Sepulchure's hands.

Jake held his axe blade against Sepulchure's chest and backed the doom knight up to the edge of the ledge, "Well, looks like I was right."

Sepulchure held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, "That may be, but I know your code, your ethics, you can't kill me."

Jake lifted his helmet to show his face, which was snarling, "Oh really? I guess you havn't heard of the ninja village yet. I helped Xan burn the place down. So I guess, by your definition, I'm no longer a hero." Jake's face took on a thoughtful look, "Then I guess there really won't be a problem with me doing this then." Jake flipped his helmet back down, and shouted, "THIS IS LORE!"

Jake wound up and kicked Sepulchure directly in the chest, sending the doom knight flying off of the top of the castle, screaming the whole way.

Artix spoke almost in awe, mostly in dread, "Jake, did you just kill Sepulchure?"

Jake flipped his helmet back down and peered over the edge, "Nah, I've fallen farther and lived. But I suppose I'd better go finish him off."

Jake started to nonchalantly waltz back to the door to the lower floors.

He whispered to Artix, "Now what do we do?"

Artix started to open his mouth but someone else answered for him.

Louise sprinted after Jake, "NO!"

Jake started to turn around, "Wha..."

Louise bodily tackled Jake, wrestled him to the ground, tore off his flaming helmet with her bare hands, and kissed him right on the floor of Sepulchure's castle.

Jake's face was the epitome of disbelief, "Wha..."

Louise was practically sobbing into Jake's chest, "Jake, no more killing. I..."

The pall of darkness that had settled over Jake's countenance faded to a large degree, "Louise, what exactly are you trying to tell me?"

Louise pushed herself up enough so that she was kneeling in front Jake, "I, Jake I, I love you."

Jake almost seemed to choke, "You, you love, me? How long..."

Louise turned bright red, "Six years."

Jake's head did the math, "Oh, great, then I've been torturing you for six years." Jake threw his hands up in the air, "I guess that makes it official, I'm a horrible person."

Louise objected, "No you're not!"

Jake chuckled, the first time he had laughed since he had gotten Teresa's letter, and the first genuine laugh since Louise had butted into the conversation just before, "Relax Louise, I'm joking. I just wish you had said something before I married that flighty, red haired temptress. I'm actually starting to wonder how I ended up marrying that woman in the first place."

Louise looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Jake shrugged, "Maybe I was just young and stupid, with a talent for making quick puns."

Artix butted in, "And that latter part has changed, how?"

Jake turned around and seemed to notice Artix for the first time, "Ah, what are you and Galanoth doing here? For that matter, why did neither of you make a move to help me with Sepulchure?"

Artix went wide eyed, "Ah, we were ah, chained to the wall over there."

Jake got up off the floor and crossed the room to the where they had all been "chained" and yanked on one of the fake chains, it fell apart at the slightest of effort.

Jake held up the fake chain accusingly, "Ok, not that I'm giving Sepulchure any credit, but even he is smart enough to buy strong chains. Is there something going on that I should be aware of?"

Artix spoke a very unconvincing, "Of course not."

Jake turned back to Louise, "Louise? How about you?"

Louise turned bright red, "Ah..." And took a deep breath, "I, it was all set up. Please don't hate me."

Jake smiled and shook his head, "That's just not possible." And turned to the rest of them, "A set up huh? Wow you guys really went all out on this one. I suppose it's my karma coming back around to bite me in the rear. But..." He walked back over to Louise, "...I think that at the moment I'm liking how it's turning out."

He gestured to Artix and Galanoth, silently telling them that now would be a good time to leave. Jake and Louise deserved a bit of time to themselves without an audience.

Jake waited for Artix and the other two men to clear out before opening his mouth, "So, now that we both know how the other feels, what now?"

Louise looked up at him, "You mean you feel the same?"

He nodded and led Louise over to the edge before taking a seat, "I'm rather sure that I do. Perhaps the disastrous end of my last marriage made me take a hard look at what love really is. But I do have one small, ok not small at all, very large worry about what should happen later on down the line. I still have my job to do, so..."

Louise cut him off, "Oh, I wouldn't worry about me getting lonely."

He smirked, "And why might that be?"

Louise wrapped her arms around him, pinning both of his limbs to his sides, "Because every time you have to go out, I'm going with you."

He wriggled his arms free, "That sound like a very good solution to me. Just one last question, what are you going to use as a weapon?"

Louise reached into her backpack, "I have this." And pulled out a blade that shined so brightly that it hurt his eyes.

He held up his hands to block some of the light, "AH! Bright light, put it away!"

Louise quickly stuffed the brilliant sword back into her backpack, "I'm sorry!"

He blinked a few times until he could see clearly, "It's fine, I just didn't know it was you that held the Blade of Destiny. But know that I know, I have no objections whatsoever."

Louise's eyes teared up in joy and she lunged at him, "Thank you!"

His head cracked against the stone floor, "Ok, I love you to Louise! No need to tackle me to the floor!"

A loud groan passed through the air.

Louise let him up, "What was that?"

He peered over the edge and down to where he had kicked Sepulchure, "Heh, the doom knight doesn't feel too good." He shouted down at Sepulchure, "Oh suck it up you big baby! I fell farther than that during the war for Popsprocket and I STILL got back up and kicked your ass!" He turned back to Louise, "So, where do you want to have it?"

Louise gave him a confused look, "Have what?"

He smiled and shook his head, "Oh I don't know, the wedding? I myself am partial to Osprey cove."

Louise shook her head, "No, I'd like it in Falconreach. Right on the bluff outside of the guardian tower."

He laughed, "Works for me."

As he whistled for Bruno, he thought for a moment about the recent events. Teresa's betrayal, his psycho trip, and now Louise and him finally coming together like they should have before. He supposed things just worked out like they should sometimes. And when he looked back at Louise, he could tell, right down to the bottom of his soul, that this was how it should be.


End file.
